


We're Not Friends

by lolcano



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Flash Thompson Needs a Hug, Flash Thompson Redemption, Flash Thompson is kind of a jerk but gets better, Flash's reaction, Gen, POV Flash Thompson, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home Mid-Credits Scene, Spider-Man Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2020-07-19 14:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19975951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lolcano/pseuds/lolcano
Summary: Flash Thomson was surprised, to say the least, that Peter Parker is Spiderman. But what is he going to do about it?





	1. Chapter 1

Flash should have been studying, but instead he was watching an Avengers meme compilation: “Funny Avenger clips GUARUNTEED to make you laugh until you cry (1 hr)”

After that, he watched “Wholesome Spiderman memes that cured my depression”

And he was five minutes into a “MOST EPIC SPIDERMAN MOMENTS” video when Spiderman’s identity was revealed for the whole entire world to see, but unfortunately Flash was watching “MOST EPIC SPIDERMAN MOMENTS” on Youtube and didn’t see it.

Which was too bad because Flash Thompson was (in his opinion) Spiderman’s Number One Fan and he had been wondering about his hero’s secret identity for ages.

Flash had a theory about Spiderman’s secret identity, actually. Flash had come to this revelation through diligent research. That’s what it meant to be a number one fan – to keep up to date on all things Spiderman. Flash had watched every single Spiderman clip on the internet multiple times, and that is how he was able to conclude that Spiderman was most likely a teenage boy. Spiderman’s voice was not deep enough to be a full-grown man – in fact, he might even be the same age as Flash.

Which Flash thought was pretty cool.

Because if Spiderman was an ordinary kid from New York like him, then couldn’t he, an ordinary kid from New York, also become a hero like Spiderman? Could it really be true that a teenager could be a hero too?

Flash’s parents on the other hand, didn’t really care about Spiderman. They didn’t want their son to be Spiderman, if anything, they would have preferred him to be Iron Man. They wanted their son to be like Tony Stark: smarter than everyone else, rich, intelligent and brilliant. They gave him all that money could buy so that he could become that person. And Flash tried so hard to become that person. But sometimes… (and he didn’t even like to admit this to himself) Flash thought that maybe there was something wrong with him, because it was just so _hard_ for him to reach that which others seemed to reach so effortlessly. And deep down inside, he was afraid he might never reach it. That he could never really be that person his parents wanted him to be.

But when he looked at Spiderman, he didn’t feel like that. He didn’t feel afraid. He felt brave.

In New York there are hundreds of thousands of people and Flash didn’t really care about them all that much before, but then when you thought about it really, any one of them could be Spiderman, couldn’t they? That kid sitting at the next table at the coffee shop? He could be Spiderman. He could be a hero. And if the guy next to you had the courage to be a hero, then why couldn’t he?

It made him feel like he could do anything. 

That being said, it’s true that not everyone can be a superhero. There was no way that Flash could fight evil supervillains and go to space – and so he was glad that Spiderman was there to do it for him. But Spiderman didn’t just do big important things like that. Even the video “MOST EPIC SPIDERMAN MOMENTS” showed him giving people directions and helping old ladies carry groceries. You didn’t have to be a super hero to do _that_. _Anyone_ could do it!

Spiderman made Flash think that he could be a better man.

And speaking of being a better man, Flash realized that probably he should be studying, and not watching random videos on Youtube.

Flash wondered if Spiderman ever had to study. If he really was a high school student, it must be a lot of work to balance school and crime-fighting. So if Spiderman could do that, surely he, Flash, could study for his biology test next Wednesday!

And with that in mind, Flash pulled up an electronic version of his textbook on his phone and began to read. For Spiderman! And also, for good grades. If he didn’t do well on this his parents were going to be so mad! If he didn’t get an A+ on every single test, what would his father say?

Flash’s father, you see, was what they call, an Important Person. He was very rich. And Important People do not fail biology test. Important People are different than everyone else. And you want to be an important person, don’t you Eugene? That’s what his father always told him.

But then, things were different now. Maybe it didn’t matter. Ever since the blip, his parents had been fighting. Both himself and his father had disappeared those five years past. And in those five years, his mother had changed. What had happened, Flash did not know.

But now his parents were always fighting.

They were so caught up in their arguments it was if had forgotten entirely that there was someone else in this family – the son on whom they had previously laid all their hopes and dreams and expectations, and who had struggled to hold himself up right beneath this heavy weight, who now struggled to be remembered at all.

Flash wondered if his mother had even noticed that he was gone.

He sighed, realizing that he had read the same line in his biology textbook 5 times now, each time without understanding a single thing. Clearly he wasn’t in the right mood for studying.

And so he was instead about to click on an extremely relatable video called “TikToks with strong Vine energy to make me forget I lost 5 years of my life”, when he noticed a strange new video that had appeared on his recommended list: “Spiderman’s Identity: REVEALED?”.

 _As if_ , he thought to himself. Yet another clickbait video. People were always claiming that they had figured out Spiderman’s identity, from the ridiculous (Beyoncé) to the insane (he was a shape-shifting alien from the planet Spooder) to jokes (Ness from Mother 2) to the somewhat plausible (Hollywood star Andrew Garfield).

That being said, Flash always watched them, at the very least so he could post his reaction videos to his blog.

Speaking of his blog…. Flash noticed that he had a bunch of notifications on his fan account. That was weird. Usually nobody watched his videos. But someone had tagged him in a post, and it looked like the very same video he had seen on youtube. And #spidermanreveal was on trending. Could it really be legit?

Flash’s heart started beating faster. Could this be the moment he had been waiting for for so long?! He was about to find out Spiderman’s secret identity!

Flash began to stream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the first chapter! Hope you enjoyed it even though it was probably unnecessarily long. Don't worry, the reveal will come very soon! ;)


	2. Chapter 2

~*~*~*~

 _Spiderman’s real-_ [Beck looks behind him] _Spiderman’s real name is P-_

The screen turned black. 

“OH COME ON!” shouted Flash, throwing up his arms in frustration.

“Are you freaking kidding me right now?!” he yelled at the screen, “You can’t do this to me after all thi – oh wait it’s back on come on come on don’t cut o - WHAAAAT?!?! nooo noooo no way no way no way HOLY - ”

And the livestream ended abruptly.

* * *

Flash put down his phone and walked out of his room.

He walked down the hallway, past the one thousand billion dollar painting of a red and blue rectangle, past the two million dollar steel sculpture which his father had bought at an auction and his mother had recently said was “tacky”, resulting in yet another argument, past the potted plant towards the tall sweeping staircase which opened up into a spacious living room nobody in his family actually ever sat in. He arrived at the bottom of the staircase.

The sofas stood rigidly in a row against a vast window frame draped in tepid beige curtains which he drew apart and looked out the window. The sun was shining. It was a beautiful day. How could it happen that on such a beautiful day somewhere out there Peter Parker was Spiderman? How could they exist in the same world?

Maybe it wasn’t real, thought Flash. Standing here in his living room, the video he had watched just a few minutes earlier seemed far away, a distant dream. Standing here in his living room, far from his phone and from his school and Peter Parker, he could pretend that none of this had happened. It wasn’t real. Only the scene standing in front of him was real, the green bushes waving gently in the breeze, his feet digging into the plush carpet. If it wasn’t there in front of him, did that mean it wasn’t true?

He headed towards the kitchen. Past his father’s office, its mahogany doors firmly shut. His father wasn’t there anyways. Into the kitchen with its black marble countertops shimmering like obsidian. Flash opened the fridge. He wasn’t really hungry but he pulled out a carton of yogurt anyways and sat down on the island to eat. Could Peter Parker _really_ be Spiderman? he mused idly to himself, a spoon sticking out of his mouth. He looked at his reflection warped in the marble countertop. No no, he reassured himself, Mysterio was probably just making stuff up. After all, Mysterio in the video had implied that Spiderman was a murderer, and that _certainly_ wasn’t true. And if Spiderman was not a murderer, then Mysterio was lying. And if Mysterio was lying, then Peter Parker wasn’t Spiderman.

**Q.E.D!**

That’s right! Flash felt immensely relieved. It was all so simple! Of course some people would be drawn into that video and think it was real, but they did not have the same piercing intelligence and first-hand knowledge as Flash did. They weren’t _real_ Spiderfans – they wouldn’t know that Mysterio had just made the entire thing up, including Spiderman’s real identity. Which meant it was up to HIM to tell the truth! He was already thinking of the title for his next video: “Mysterio DESTROYED through the powers of FACTS AND LOGIC” when he realized that he was still just sitting in his kitchen eating yogurt. What the heck? What was he even doing?! He didn’t even like yogurt!

But there was no time to waste! He had to counter the slanders of this Daily Bugle person and restore honour to the house of Spiderman! He would make them regret tarnishing the good name of New York’s premier superhero!

He went back upstairs.

It was time to stream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! Sorry it is so short, but there will be more! ^^


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey what’s up FlashMob, sorry about the last video. As you know I’m a pretty big Spiderman fan and so that was a huge video for me for a lot of reasons and I just needed some time to process it all. But I know you really guys wanted to sea my reaction, and I’ve had some time to think about it now, so get ready because I’m about to lay out some hard truths for y’all.”

“Okay, so, let me get right into it. This video… is like… 100% **FAKE** , and I can prove it. Like, who has the AUDACITY to claim that _SPIDERMAN_ of all people, is a _villain_? Only a villain would say that, so who’s the real bad guy here? Let’s be honest with each other Spiderfans. _Mysterio_ is the culprit. _He_ is the villain. When has Spiderman ever purposely tried to hurt anybody? Uhh… Never?”

“Look, take it from me. If you’re a long time follower you’ll know that I was THERE in London during the attacks. Were they caused by Spiderman? NO! Spiderman saved my life that day. I wouldn’t even be STANDING here if it weren’t for Spiderman.”

_(Out of all the people in London, Flash recalled, Spiderman’s associate had come to save HIM. But it wasn’t him. It was MJ and Ned and Betty, which, when Flash thought about it, was somewhat strange. Why had Spiderman singled them out, of all people in London? And now was not the time to realize that the one thing they had in common was that they were Peter Parker’s friends)._

“Spiderman saved my LIFE, okay? And that wasn’t even like, the first time. When I was in Washington for the Decathlon (which we won by the way, you’re welcome), the Washington Monument almost exploded, right? We would have _died_ if it wasn’t for Spiderman. Does that sound like the actions of a mass murderer?”

_(Wherever his school went, Spiderman went also. Wasn’t that strange? And that day when Flash won the Decathlon, he had only been on the team because Peter was missing. Because Peter was sick, just like was always “sick”, whenever Spiderman appeared. Had Flash ever seen Spiderman and Peter together, despite the almost absurdly unbelievable fact that almost every where they had went on their trip in Europe, Spiderman had also appeared? Isn’t that strange? But he pushed aside the thought and continued.)_

“And look, putting myself aside for the moment, Spiderman has done COUNTLESS good for this city. There is footage to prove it. He is _always_ helping the people of New York. If you can’t see that then I really don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know how to make it more clear. So let’s move on, look, it’s clearly _Mysterio_ that’s the bad guy here! Why? Two reasons.”

“One: we all know that Spiderman is a hero who wouldn’t kill anyone unless they deserved it.” 

“Two: When Mysterio died, the drone attack stopped.”

“Look! I saw it with my own two eyes! I watched the elemental disappear! And I swear on my life, that elemental wasn’t real in the first place! It was an illusion the whole time and MYSTERIO was the one who made it! He was the one who sent the drones and if Spiderman hadn’t stopped him, he would have destroyed all of London!”

_(‘What happened to Mysterio?’ someone asked as they waited in the airport to go home. And Peter (Peter Parker, who was supposed to have been in Berlin with his distant relatives, and yet somehow he was there in London with them) had said in a flat tired voice: ‘He’s dead,’ and there was something about the way he had said it that made them all fall into an uncomfortable silence until finally someone asked, ‘What do you mean he’s dead, did the drones kill him? Wasn’t he trying to protect us from the elementals?’ And MJ had said, ‘Look, the elementals weren’t real the whole time. It was just an illusion.’ And how had she known that? But there was no time to think about that now.)_

“MYSTERIO” Flash continued, “was the one who had been pretending to be a good guy all this time, not Spiderman! I mean, Mysterio just showed up out of NOWHERE claiming to be a superhero, who had even heard about him before? Show 👏 me 👏 the 👏 receipts! “

“SPIDERMAN, on the other hand, helped the freaking _AVENGERS_ defeat _Thanos_! And saved half of the world’s population! If that’s not a hero, I don’t know what is!”

( _Peter Parker had known Tony Stark. Flash had thought he had been lying but it seems to have been true, Flash had seen the pictures. And then after the blip…. All Flash had done was make one little joke; he hadn’t meant for Peter to take it so seriously, because how stupid do you have to be to get so misty-eyed just over an internship?)_

“So in conclusion, Mysterio is a FAKE and a LIAR and we shouldn’t listen to him. Which means…. His secret identity reveal? UTTERLY WORTHLESS. Are you going to let this man, this man who is clearly a villain, claim that a 16 year old CHILD is Spiderman?”

“Okay guys, I’m going to level with you. I’ve got a confession to make. Part of the reason I was so surprised in my last video is because I _KNOW_ THIS KID. Okay? PETER PARKER _IS IN MY CLASS_. So I can tell you right now, with 100% certainty, that he is DEFINETELY NOT SPIDERMAN.”

“Why not? You might be wondering. Well look, Peter Parker is just… like, he’s not even on the same level as Spiderman. He’s a wimp, he’s an absolute flake, he’s…. he’s….”

_(He’s standing there in the science lab with Flash and the rest of his class when he exclaims, “Ow” and swats his arm. The tour guide turns to look at him but by now everything is back to normal, Peter just shrugs and says its nothing, but Flash sees him looking at a small red lump on his skin. “Far from being scary,” the guide continues, now in the next room, “spiders are amazing creatures. They are creators and builders. Here at * Labs, we’ve been working on creating spiders that are capable of creating even stronger webs than before, that will be used to help seal wounds and heal patients. These little guys here are all going to be the stars of future experiments.”_

_And the next day, Peter is sick and doesn’t show up for class.)_

“He’s…”

_(He’s sitting at his desk and at first Flash doesn’t know anything has happened. “What’s up loser,” he says, and when Peter doesn’t even bother replying he says, “What, have you gone hard of hearing or something?” and is about to clap loudly near his ears but without even looking Peter has grabbed hold of his arm. “What’s the matter with you?” Flash gasps, trying to pull himself free from the vice-like grip. “His uncle just died, you idiot,” someone whispers, “Leave him alone.”_

_It was soon after that that Spiderman first began to appear in the streets.)_

_(“Peter knows Spiderman!” Ned blurts out in the middle of gym class, “They’re friends!” “Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends,” laughs Flash. But Ned insists it is true. “Well, maybe you should invite him to Liz’s party,” Flash suggests. But Spiderman never shows up at the party. Spiderman is elsewhere that night. Peter also disappears that night. Where did he go? Flash doesn’t know.)_

_(They are in the dungeon with Spiderman’s associate and they are about to die. So this is what it was like to die. He’s too young to die. He doesn’t want to die! There was so much he hadn’t done! “Well,” said the man, “This might be the end. Michelle,” he says suddenly, turning towards her, “I have something to give you. From…” he glances at Flash, “…_ you know _...” Flash didn’t know. From Spiderman? Who else could it be from? And the man carefully pulls from his pocket a black glass flower. And then, suddenly, as abruptly as they began, the drones stop. Flash and the others leave the building tentatively, and when everything seems safe, Michelle runs. She runs and runs and later she appears with Peter who was supposed to be in Berlin with his family, and they are dating.)_

“Guys,” Flash said slowly, “I think that Peter Parker is Spiderman.”


	4. Chapter 4

_“I_ heard,” a girl was saying, leaning into a microphone conspiratorially, “that he stood up _Liz Allen_ at homecoming. A senior student. She was sooo popular, a million times out of his league. And he stood her up! Can you believe it?”

“Wasn’t her dad also a criminal or something?”

“Yeah, and Spiderman stopped him.”

“Oh man, that must have been so awkward!”

Flash was standing outside Midtown Science and Technology School, which was currently besieged by a forest of reporters, camera crew and students, all talking at once. In short, a commotion. Next to him a reporter was trying to interview a group of girls, and Flash was trying to inch his way into the shot so that he could be on TV too. Flash didn’t even know why the reporter was bothering to talk to these people anyway, when he was obviously much more handsome and talent. The girls were in the grade above him and they didn’t know _anything_ about Peter Parker except rumours, as if most of those rumours hadn’t been spread by him, Flash, anyways? Why these reporters were interviewing a bunch of losers with screen-presence of a stale donut and not him, Flash, who had a naturally gifted charisma he had gained from practising in front of mirror every day for ten years, Flash really did not know. He shook his head and when the reporter _still_ did not notice him, he moved on. Their loss.

“Wasn’t he the kid who broke that table in the cafeteria two years ago?” some girl Flash vaguely recognized from band practise was saying to another reporter, “Some kid was like, bullying him and he like, ripped it right out of the floor and nobody understood how. It was insane.”

“What, seriously?” laughed her friend, “How come I don’t remember this?”

“This is before the blip,” she explained, “You weren’t in our class.”

“Peter Parker?” another student was saying, “Nope, sorry, never heard of him.”

“Is he the guy who stood up in the middle of the assembly a few months ago and announced like, he was sick and needed to throw up? Oh my gosh I was so embarrassed for him.”

“It was mortifying,” agreed another student, “ _Everybody_ was staring.”

“So what do you think of Peter Parker?” another reporter was asking.

“Who?” said the student, some rando Flash had never even seen before.

“You know? Peter Parker? Spiderman? He goes to your school.”

“ _Spiderman_ goes to our school?!” said the boy incredulously, “No way!”

Hopeless! These people were hopeless!

“Excuse me,” said Flash, shoving himself in front of the nearest camera, “I know Spiderman!”

“What?!” said the reporter, her eyes lighting up. “You know Spiderman?!”

“Oh sure, I’ve known him for years.”

This made the reporter even more excited.

“Hey, Cole,” she ordered the camera man, “focus in on this kid. He’s friends with _Spiderman_.”

“Um well, actually…” said Flash, as the other kid was shoved aside and the reporter held the microphone beneath Flash’s face. She nodded at him encouragingly.

“Yes?” she said.

Flash took a deep breath.

* * *

It was everything he had ever wanted.

After he had posted his video last night, his follower count starting going up.

And up.

His heart started pounding. Was this it? Was he going _viral_?? Perhaps in a few hours he would no longer just be a micro influencer. He’d be an honest to goodness, _macro influencer_. He would be an instagram sensation. All his channels would prosper! He’d become a youtube STAR! He’d get that coveted blue checkmark on twitter. He was going to be a _celebrity_. And all because he personally knew Spiderman!

Everything he had ever wanted, was suddenly within his grasp. Fame. Fortune. He would be POPULAR!

He wanted to be happy about it, and yet something was bothering him about this whole situation.

There was one small little inconvenient issue that he wished he could just ignore, and yet it was absolutely unescapable. And that problem was the unbelievable, absolutely horrendous fact that Peter Parker was Spiderman.

Perhaps you don’t understand.

 _PETER PARKER_. Was. SPIDERMAN.

Whenever Flash thought about it, he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. If it had been anybody else in the world, he could have been happy. Anybody else in the world, and he wouldn’t have cared. So why did it have to be the one kid he disliked, the one kid who he despised, the bane of his existence, stupid puny Peter Parker!? He felt furious and betrayed and angry; actually he didn’t really know _what_ he felt, only that his emotions were churning around uneasily in his stomach and he didn’t know what to do.

 _And Parker had known this whole time_! he thought furiously, Probably his stupid fat friend had known too. And this whole time, they had been laughing at him behind his back. Him going on and on about Spiderman, while meanwhile Spiderman was right there, making him look like a fool. Well, what was so great about Peter Parker anyways? Why did he get _everything_ while Flash got nothing?

He had been trying to go viral for YEARS and now he posts one stupid video about Peter Parker and now suddenly the whole world cares. How is that fair? And now he was getting flooded, absolutely inundated, with inane messages like:

“You know SPIDERMAN?!?!?! THAT’S AMAZING!”

“You’re friends with SPIDERMAN?!”

But they _weren’t_ friends – Parker was just a _dweeb_ and a _loser_ and Flash was about to make another video explaining this to the world, when he looked at the messages and something very important occurred to him.

They were jealous of him. 

Everyone wanted to be friends with Spiderman. But _were_ they friends with Spiderman? No! Only he, the Flash, was personal friends with Spiderman! Grandiose visions began flashing through his head. Peter introducing him to the Avengers. His parents’ faces when _Thor_ comes over for dinner. The envious gazes of others as he swung through the streets with Spiderman, his long-time personal friend.

Of course there was still a small problem, and that was that they had never actually been friends in the first place.

In fact, Peter probably h-

But wait! thought Flash, his brain working furiously, it wasn’t as if they were nothing at all, were they? They… they certainly had _something_. History, you could call it. While you could perhaps not call them friends, then at the very least you might be able to call them…. rivals? Or something more to that nature?

 _Fated rivals_ , he thought. Yeah, now that sounded good. It made him feel good. He didn’t want to admit that Peter might not feel the same way. We’re fated rivals, he repeated. They had uh… pushed each other to make each other stronger. He liked it. If he could recontextualize the past in this way, it made him sound important.

That is what he decided that night.

* * *

And so that is what he told the reporter very confidently:

“Yeah, we’re actually very close friends!”

Even as he said it, he wondered what had happened. Up until that very minute Flash had sincerely intended to say they were not friends, but rivals, but at the last minute he had hesitated. It was so difficult to describe their relationship, he reasoned. “Fated rivals” sounded nice on paper but it raised a lot of awkward questions. Like: if you’re rivals with a hero, doesn’t that make you a villain? And Flash didn’t really want to answer that. So why not just go with “friends”? It was easy. Nice, happy, clean. No need to make things complicated.

And indeed, the reporter’s brilliant eager smile washed away any remnants of uneasiness he might have felt.

“That’s amazing!” she chirped, “We’re so lucky to interview you! Now, were you surprised by that video last night? Or... did you know that he was Spiderman the whole time?”

“Well, I’ve always had my suspicions,” said Flash sagely. He angled himself towards the camera to give the world the most flattering view of himself, “But obviously I wanted to keep it a secret, since that’s what friends do. Honestly, the only thing surprising about that video was its blatant lies. Spiderman would never hurt innocent people.”

“What loyalty!” swooned the reporter, “Spiderman’s lucky to have such a good friend as you. Now tell me, what’s he like when he’s not saving the world?”

Flash explained as best as he could, even after the bell had rung. And although the bell had rung, nobody else went inside too. Everyone kept talking until finally the principal appeared outside with an air horn. Gradually, after repeated blasts, the yard became quiet.

“I assume,” said the principal pointedly, “you are all here because of the video released last night. Now, whether or not Peter Parker is Spiderman, I do not know. But I _do_ know that he is entitled to his _privacy_ , and I would _appreciate_ if you understood that as well. Class is about to begin. I would ask all the students to head inside, and all the reporters to leave and _do not come back_. Good _day_.”

Everyone started talking again, but now security guards began shepherding the reporters away. The morning bell rang again, and gradually, reluctantly, students started heading into class.

“My Instagram is SpideyNo1Fan,” Flash yelled at the reporter before he was corralled into his classroom, “DM me for an exclusive interview!”

Flash hurried to his locker, realizing that he was already late for class. However, things like time or schedules had all been lost in the excitement of the day. No one was sitting down. Students from other classes wandered in and out the classroom at will. And around Ned Leeds desk was an enormous crowd of students, all asking him questions. _What’s so great about him?_ Thought Flash scornfully, _geez, you associate with a superhero_ one time _and suddenly everyone’s bending backwards towards you._ It was pathetic.

“Well, that may or may not be true,” Ned kept saying over and over, “These are all very good questions, and I am sad to say that I do not know the answers.”

“Come on, Ned, stop playing dumb. We _know_ you know. Peter is your best friend!”

“But do I know?” he said mysteriously, “I barely know myself. How well do any of us know anybody, really?”

“Oh come on it’s so obvious,” said Yasmin, who, as Flash could not help but note, was not even in this class, “Just _tell us_!”

“Hey, it’s Flash,” someone announced, and although Flash had just been annoyed at how everyone had been swarming around Ned and not him, he suddenly felt uncomfortable.

“What?” he said.

“Oh man, Flash” said Miguel, chortling like the stupid idiot he was, “bet you sure feel dumb now.”

“Why would I feel dumb?” snapped Flash, “What are you talking about, I knew all along.”

“ _Yeah right!_ ”

“I TOLD you Peter knew Spiderman!” said Ned, standing up triumphantly and pointing at Flash, “I TOLD you man, but you didn’t believe me!”

“Shut up!”

“So now you admit it!” said Yasmin, turning back swiftly to Ned, “Peter _is_ Spiderman!”

“Uh, no I just said Peter _knew_ Spiderman! What are you talking about Yasmin?”

“Obviously he would know himself!”

“Yes, obviously!” said Ned, “But that’s not the _point_!”

“Would you all _please_ quiet down?!” their teacher begged desperately. 

“I figured it out after London,” Flash said quickly, “Spiderman saved my life that day.”

“Guys!”

“Don’t know why!” laughed someone else, “The way you treat him!”

“Wait a minute, in Washington…!”

“Would you _please_ quiet down?!”

“Guys! Do you think - ? Guys!”

It took almost half an hour of the teacher’s desperate pleading before everyone was in their proper seats and classes. And yet there were two seats that remained conspicuously empty. Everyone looked at the seats and whispered to each other. Both Michelle Jones and Peter Parker were absent.

Then, about 15 minutes into class, the door opened. Everyone turned eagerly to see who it was. But despite everyone’s hopes, it wasn’t Peter – it was Michelle.

“Sorry I’m late,” she stated flatly and headed towards her desk.

“Hey is it true that – ?” some-one whispered, but she just gave them the finger and lounged back in her chair, ignoring everyone’s glances and whispers with a resolute nonchalance.

“Alright then…” the teacher said uncertainly, “If everyone’s ready, let’s continue.”

And the lesson continued.

Peter Parker did not show up for school that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading! I've never had a fic that was this popular before! 😭 I really appreciate your support and a special thank you to all the kind people who reviewed, it really means a lot! I will continue to do my best. 
> 
> If things go according to plan, there should be about two or three chapters left, and maybe a possible sequel (though this will take a lot more time to write). 
> 
> I think that Flash is a great character and I hope there will be more stories about him in the future!


	5. Chapter 5

Peter Parker showed up on the news that night.

There was a clip that they played over and over – Peter standing in front of a crowd of reporters outside his house; his face drawn and resigned. Flash watched his friend (rival?) stutter “No comment” over and over as his aunt manhandled her way through the reporters, dragging Peter with her until they disappeared into a car. Flash almost wanted to laugh at the way he looked like a deer in headlights, how he stuttered and sweated like an idiot – it was the kind of thing he would have made fun off in the past.

But now…?

It all seemed a lot more complicated.

Flash heard the sound of the front door slam; the familiar noise of his father returning home. Footsteps headed to the kitchen, where his father had been in the habit of pouring himself a glass of whisky after work. If he listened carefully he could almost hear the clatter of ice into a glass – but it was interrupted by a woman’s voice speaking harshly and Flash could feel his heart starting to pound. They were at it again.

Instinctively Flash reached for his phone. He didn’t want to listen to their arguments. Without even thinking he opened Instagram, and was surprised to find hundreds of notifications waiting for him. So many… After getting home from school he had tried to clear out his messages, but he had barely made a dent. And now there were even more than before. And it was all about Spiderman. All about Parker. People with inane inquiries. Hearts and jealous gushing. Angry comments. 

_I CANT BELIEVE YOU KNEW SPIDERMAN!!! TELL ME EVERYTHIIIIING!_

_Lol your voice sounds like a little girl especially when you scream._

_Hey you should release another video soon I wanna know what was the giveaway that he was Spiderman??_

_bro your videos are so cringe_

_Dude your such a prick get a life_

_SPIDERMAN SUCKS!!!_

_haha lol THIS GUY did you see him practically crying when the drones were attacking? His reactions are hilarious_

_Nice vid man keep it up_

_Spiderman is a menace. go *** yourself_

So many notifications. Flash would have been happy about that, once upon a time. At first he had even tried to answer all their questions, spinning long stories about how he and Peter went way back, and in some ways it was true, they did go way back. They had been in class together and band together and robotics together and decathlon together, they had spent so much time together and in retrospect, Flash had even enjoyed those times together, in a way. So maybe the stories stretched the truth a little, but they still weren’t _lies_ exactly, and they got him more attention. He couldn’t believe it at first. None of his posts had _ever_ gotten this much attention, even after he had started paying for the bots. But then the messages kept coming, and coming and now as he checked his phone only to see a hundred more notifications waiting for him, he could no longer feel that first heady excitement he had experienced at the beginning.

Instead, he just felt numb. Another message. Another person screaming at him. And another and another and another until it all blended together into one incoherent mass and he didn’t know how to even begin answering it all.

“DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO READ A CLOCK?” his mother was screaming and his father snapped back something imperceptible.

Flash moved to Twitter, but it wasn’t any better. Of course, #spiderman was trending. It was typical, really, he thought to himself bitterly. He finally got the fame he had wanted for so long, but it wasn’t even about him. It was about Peter.

It was always about Peter! He was the golden boy, the genius child. Always showing him up effortlessly, as if Flash didn’t even matter. Well, Flash _did_ matter, no matter what anybody else said or thought. Flash was going to be an Important Person someday, and Peter was just a little nobody, some pathetic scholarship kid who had happened to get a little lucky, and Flash made sure he would never forget it. And when Flash teased him and looked down on his pathetic distraught face he felt powerful – like he did matter somehow, after all.

Spiderman had made him feel like he mattered too. Spiderman – just your regular neighbourhood hero, always ready to lend a helping hand. Anyone could be a hero. Even Flash. Anyone could be Spiderman!

So why did it have to be Peter?

Flash felt so confused.

The argument downstairs seemed to have concluded; his father now marched up the stairs. After stomping around in his room for a few moments he appeared in Flash’s doorway, wearing an expensive suit and fiddling with the cufflink.

“Your mother is worried we’ll be late for our dinner tonight,” he said drily, “So it seems I must be off.”

“Oh, uh, okay,” said Flash, “See you later then.” His father wasn’t the type to just casually come and discuss his evening plans – there had to be something else here.

And indeed, after a brief, loaded pause:

“A friend of mine said he saw you on TV today. Something about Spiderman?”

“Oh.” So his father hadn’t even seen the video, he’d just heard about it from a friend. 

“Yeah, there were reporters at school today,” Flash explained, “Turns out he’s a classmate of mine. Pretty crazy, huh?”

“Great,” said his father, shaking his head, “Just great. Look, don’t get involved in this whole business. I don’t know what the truth of it is but that kid’s been branded a criminal. If you’re his friend, just… try to cut ties. We don’t need a scandal. Understand?”

For a brief, ludicrous second, Flash wanted to refuse. He wanted to defend the Spiderman he had spent so many years idolizing, to shout and scream, “He’s not a criminal! He saved my life!” because wasn’t his _life_ more important than the precious family reputation? But his father had always wanted his family to appear perfect, to shine with a flawless veneer the world could look up to and envy. So Flash put on that perfect mask and said “Yes Father,” and his father left with a brisk nod of satisfaction.

But inside Flash was still seething. What did his father know? He opened up social media again half to distract himself, without even realizing what he was doing.

More notifications. Why did he even keep _looking_ at his phone? It was always the same. But he had depended on it for so long, craved that rush of validation when someone liked his posts, that it was hard now to stop looking, even now when it only filled him with dread.

_SPIDERMAN SUCKS AND SO DO YOU GO DIE YOU IDIOT_

_My daughter died in the drone attacks in London. Now we find out the truth behind it and you try to defend him? Absolutely disgusting. I hope you’re proud of yourself._

What did they know?! And yet the messages kept coming and reading them he felt worse and worse. Did everyone in the world hate him? No matter how many he deleted, a few seconds later there were always more. He felt like he was drowning. It was like trying to empty the ocean out with a spoon. He felt sick to the stomach. He never should have made that account to begin with. Flash groaned and lay down on his bed. Was this going to be his life now?

It was all so stupid! School, the reporters, his father’s warning, Peter Parker being Spiderman, his thousands and billions of messages, all of it was rolling over in his head and he just didn’t know what to do anymore. His life was a disaster!

Why?! Why did this have to happen to him! It was all stupid Parker’s fault! It was always his fault. He wondered what Peter was doing now, and just as suddenly he remembered the video. Peter had looked so… scared.

He sat up and frowned. Something crazy had just occurred to him.

Ever since the reveal, Flash had been thinking almost constantly about Peter, about Spiderman, but he had never actually… _thought_ about him. Everything Flash had been thinking about before had always been about how the news affected _his own_ life and it had never really occurred to him that Peter must have been affected too. But now, he had a curious idea.

Maybe… Peter was feeling the same desperation that he was. He remembered all the reporters shouting at him, his face pale and tight as his life spiralling out of control. Flash felt the same way right now. Desperate and hopeless and unsure what to do. Peter was going through the exact same thing as he was. And actually, it was probably even worse because after all, Peter Parker was Spiderman.

Peter Parker was Spiderman, and what did that even _mean_? What was he going to do now? Would he even be able to come to school ever again?

He frowned, trying to imagine what this all implied. Peter Parker was a celebrity now – and, because of that stupid video, a suspected criminal. _Of course_ he wouldn’t just be able to waltz back into class as if nothing had happened.

In retrospect this seemed astoundingly obvious, but the thought truly surprised him. He had not really thought about the implications before; he had assumed this was all just a temporary inconvenience and before long Peter Parker would be back in class and Flash would laugh at him and tell him how stupid he had looked in that video, Peter would look sheepishly chagrined and everything would go back to normal.

But it was never going to be normal now.

Even if it turned out that Peter wasn’t Spiderman (and it was kind of obvious that he was), the accusation would always stay with him. Peter couldn’t just come back to school.

And Flash might never see him ever again.

Never see him again... the thought resounded in his mind. He supposed he should feel happy about it. No golden boy to show him up; no Mister Smarty Pants to always give the right answers and steal Flash’s thunder. No one to tease and laugh at, because no one else in this school was as ridiculous as Parker. No one could match him for being such an ultimate dweeb. His dumb nerdy jokes. His stupid earnest laughter.

So then why didn’t he feel happy about it? This was his ultimate victory over Parker, and it had always made him feel better, to see the tears in his eyes and his stupid flustered face, but now he didn’t feel triumphant at all.

Flash had hated Peter. It was so easy to look at him and see everything that Flash wasn’t. It was so easy to hate him for that. And yet… he had told so many stories today about Peter, made up so many lies about how they had been friends, that he had even started to half-believe them. Of course, they weren’t really friends but… maybe…

Maybe under different circumstances, they could have been. Was that even possible?

For better or for worse, they had spent a large part of their life in close proximity of each other. They had seen each other almost every day for years, and for Peter to just _leave_ like that… To just up and disappear from Flash’s life as if he had never been there… It didn’t feel right. He wanted to stop him, to tell him to come back.

Flash pulled out his phone and almost wrote him a message, just then. He almost texted Peter. He typed in his name and Peter’s number came up and he stared at the empty textbox. His fingers hovered over the keys. But even Flash wasn’t sure what he wanted to say.

 _“Hey, are you alright”?_ he tried typing, but immediately deleted it. Obviously things _weren’t_ alright and it was stupid to even ask. 

He almost wrote “ _I understand what you’re going through_ ” because he did in a way. All these messages were something he had never had to deal with before, but he thought that out of all people right now, maybe Peter would understand it better than anyone else. But if he (a mere bystander) was getting angry messages about Spiderman, then Flash couldn’t even imagine what sort of messages Spiderman himself would receive. So how could he claim to understand? He deleted the message angrily.

Or maybe just – “ _Hey, hope you come back to school soon.”_

Because, and this was a surprise even to himself, he actually _did_ want Peter to come back. If Peter didn’t come back, well….

Flash was going to miss him.

But how could he say that? That dweeb would think he’d gone insane or something. This was all so stupid.

Finally, he turned off his phone without sending anything and went to bed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally another chapter! Sorry it took so long! Thank you everyone for your kind messages. I can't believe I've gotten so many kudos on this work...! :O Since it seems to be popular I thought I better keep working on it. :)
> 
> Anyway I hope it is obvious that Flash is deluding himself here somewhat. At this point, he still doesn't really think he's done anything bad. After all, everyone always views themselves as the hero of their own story. But objectively, Flash isn't really a good guy. He has consistently made Peter's life miserable and he will have to deal with the consequences of that later in the story. So hopefully that is where things are headed, although now the tricky part is actually writing it.... haha


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